Peace has not yet been signed, but a delegation has left for Brest-Litovsk to sign the conditions of peace accepted by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars. We have received your resolution. German White Guards and consolidated units of their regular army, having joined forces with our White Guards, are advancing on Petrograd with predatory audacity. There is information about the movement of large German forces following the advance detachments. The majority of our troops are fleeing*. The Socialist Fatherland is in danger. Dvinsk, Reval, Wenden, Wolmar, Minsk, Pskov have been occupied. The mood is spirited. Worker masses have moved en masse to defend the Soviet republic. The Central Committee of Bolsheviks supports signing peace. The Central Committee of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries supports sacred war.

With regard to gold, we recommend paying for alluvial deposits at prices corresponding to production costs. There was no special decree from the Council of People's Commissars concerning gold.

Lenin

written in the hand of N. P. Gorbunov,

with an addition by V. I. Lenin

* The text of the telegram from the words "There is information" to the words "The Socialist Fatherland" was written in the hand of V. I. Lenin. Ed.

Written 27 February 1918

First printed in 1942

in Lenin Collection XXXIV

Printed according to the text,